It’s June 17th. We’ve now surpassed the middle of the year. Both my Driver’s Licence and my Health Card expire about six months hence on my December birthday. This proximity enabled me this morning to renew my Driver’s Licence on-line (it’s being mailed to me); however the Health card requires a new photo (the Health Card had been issued a year before the Driver’s Licence so the former threatened to outdistance the 5-year limit). We dipped into Service Ontario in Carleton Place. The office was busy but the awaiting clients were being handled quickly. The clerk who looked into my needs was efficient. And exceedingly polite. After having my photo summarily taken I was given a printed temporary Health Card, the original is being mailed to me. We’ve noted it on my diary.

Invigorated by these preliminary precious preludes – I’m planning my domestic affairs five years in advance – I immediately recaptured the more lively but equally mundane pith of a car wash. The Glide wash was down for computer malfunction but the nearby Touchless was operational. I managed to nip in ahead of another driver who, like I, had been obliged to switch between stations.

Thereafter, brightened and polished by the technological innovation, we pointed the hood of the car northeastward to the beach in Arnprior along the Ottawa River. We sat quietly upon a wooden bench overlooking the expansive scenery. Nearby a small congregation of teenagers lay conversing on the hillside. I watched children in bathing suits toying on the shore of the river, venturing into the water up to their knees, gleefully skipping flat stones across the surface.  I pondered what healthful benefit I would derive from a refreshing river plunge.

Prior to relinquishing further profitable enterprise, and upon returning home and parking the car, I applied the handheld vacuum (judiciously hung in the tricycle cage) to the front car mats and beneath. Then – after setting the 240v charge to the car – I pushed off on the trike along my regular route about the neighbourhood, leaving the vacuum suspended on – and connected to – the 120v charging outlet. On my way – while relishing the perfect summer day of sunshine and fluffy white clouds – I came up behind Dr. Michelle S walking merrily on the sidewalk. I pressed the tiny electric bell of my trike several times before she realized where exactly I was. We stopped and chatted. She too has adopted an exercise routine, one which the repetition has already established as constitutional.

The day’s final performance was a complete change of apparel, swapping the cosmopolitan shorts and shirt for lighter gear designed for in-house options. Meanwhile I have the advantage of fresh clothing to complement the balmy summer breeze. I have as well rededicated myself to my desk whence I am looking upriver across the burgeoning fields, the large deciduous trees wavering in the azure sky.